The Grand Tour's new presenters: 'I hope we prove the critics wrong'

For more than two decades, Top Gear and The Grand Tour were defined as much by the three men presenting them as by the cars they drove.

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May built one of television's most recognisable partnerships, meaning anyone taking over The Grand Tour was always going to face a daunting task.

Now YouTubers James Engelsman and Thomas Holland and, perhaps most unexpectedly, train enthusiast-turned-internet star Francis Bourgeois are stepping into their shoes for the new series.

And, with initial reviews generally mixed, they knew they had some convincing to do.

"They literally changed the car world," Holland says of the previous trio.

He understands why some fans have questions about whether the show should continue with anyone else.

"They're completely justified to feel that, because they did the same thing that we did - which is grow up watching Clarkson, Hammond and May.

"The show was a very important part of our lives as car enthusiasts."

Engelsman says they themselves initially had many of the same doubts that viewers will have.

"We've had all the same reactions that the audience has had to every part of this process like, 'Who would do that? What an idiot.'

"We've been through it all and we're just lucky enough to have come out the other side and realised, 'OK, this is actually all stuff that could work.'"

"Now we've filmed it, I'm just excited to show the world," Bourgeois says. "We've done our absolute best and the critics will be critics and I hope that we will prove them wrong."

Holland adds that he hopes people will give the show a chance before judging.

"Have a watch and if you don't like it, you're well within your rights, I can't force anyone to like anything."

For a show built around the chemistry of its three former presenters, finding a replacement trio with such chemistry was always going to be as important as finding people who knew about cars.

Engelsman and Holland are an already established double act as the presenters of Throttle House, a motoring YouTube channel with more than three million subscribers.

The bigger unknown was who would become their third presenter.

That search eventually led the show's producers to Francis Bourgeois, a social media star better known for standing on railway platforms than behind the wheel of a supercar.

Engelsman says he and Holland had done chemistry testing with a number of people, but Bourgeois immediately felt different.

"As soon as Francis showed up, we were like: 'That guy'," Holland says.

Bourgeois remembers their first meeting taking place on a leather sofa in a hotel outside Basingstoke, where they mostly talked about what cars they owned.

By the time filming began, Holland says there was no need to consciously work out how to make the three-person dynamic function as "it just worked and clicked immediately".

While the chemistry came quickly, actually finding out they had the job was much less straightforward. Engelsman says there was "no immediate moment" when they were formally told they had been chosen.

"It was the most gradual thing," he says.

He and Holland initially thought they were simply part of a wider audition process, but then found themselves repeatedly being invited into writers' rooms and asked for their views on ideas for the show.

For Bourgeois, that uncertainty may have been helpful as he admits he'd "just fall apart and start crying" if he'd found out about the job.

There is a clear generational shift with the new presenters, all three of whom built their profiles on social media - and critics have been mixed on how successfully that translates to The Grand Tour.

The Independent's three-star review described the reboot as "all rather safe" and said the presenters feel "stilted".

The Guardian's review agreed and called the trio a "decent, if slightly anonymous, presence" who seem "quite meek and pleasant, and without any obvious dynamic".

But it did praise Bourgeois, with Stuart Heritage calling him "the most enthusiastic enthusiast currently working on planet Earth".

The FT also awarded the show three-stars and said that while the big budget spectacles are enjoyable to watch, they also feel "a little muted".

It added that "the real question is whether a series that has been driven by big personalities like Clarkson, May and Hammond can survive with a new team".

Bourgeois may be best known for his ecstatic trainspotting videos but he says his love of cars goes back just as far.

Growing up near Willesden Junction in London, there were plenty of trains to watch, but he was also fascinated by the cars outside his home.

"There was a particular Mitsubishi Legnum VR-4 that was outside my parents' flat window and I just loved it," he tells me. "I suppose with my social media, I'm just showing one of my passions and I have really wanted to let out that car enthusiasm too.

"It's nice that these two sides of my very strong passions are in harmony together and it's been a real pleasure to drive some of the cars on The Grand Tour."

His enthusiasm for transport more generally has already rubbed off on his co-presenters who say they've become "very educated by Francis on many things during long walks and long drives".

Bourgeois is even lobbying for The Grand Tour to devote an episode to another of his interests: power stations. And he has found a surprisingly receptive audience in Clarkson.

When the new trio met their predecessors, Bourgeois says seeing Clarkson in person gave him "a flutter in my tummy" and the pair bonded, inevitably, over trains, before moving on to power stations, and a lengthy discussion about cheeseburgers.

Engelsman says all three former presenters were supportive of their successors and "were very paternal and caring about it".

"They all seemed quite excited for there to be a new iteration," Engelsman says, adding that Clarkson even told them: "We'll look after you".